The Czech Republic and Sweden Join the Multinational Land Battle Decisive Munitions Initiative

(Source: NATO; issued Feb 13, 2020)

On Wednesday (12 February), the Land Battle Decisive Munitions initiative welcomed two new members, the Czech Republic and Sweden, bringing the total number of participating NATO Allies and partners to twenty-three. The amendment to the initiative’s Memorandum of Understanding was signed in the margins of the NATO Defence Ministers’ Meeting in Brussels.

The Land Battle Decisive Munitions Initiative forms a multinational framework for acquiring and managing key munition in the land domain. It enables participating nations to lower their acquisition costs by coming together and combining their purchase requirements. The Initiative also increases the ability of participating nations to share munition stocks.

At the signing ceremony, NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana highlighted the benefits that the Land Battle Decisive Munitions initiative brings to the Alliance. “This project, by taking full advantage of economies of scale, is enabling us to get the most of every penny, cent or öre from our rising defence budgets.”

The Land Battle Decisive Munitions Initiative was launched during the NATO Summit in 2018 and the first delivery of acquired munition followed within six months. Participating nations are now working on further acquisition rounds for later this year.

With the two new participants, the Land Battle Decisive Munitions Initiative now includes Belgium, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, France, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, United Kingdom, as well as the partner nations Austria, Finland, North Macedonia and Sweden.